Whatever This Is
by hoagie
Summary: The aliens and Ricky may be gone, but there's a new source of conflict for Bethany and Tom. One shot (INCEST WARNING)


After all the noise and chaos of her day it was nice if not a little unsettling to wake up in the middle of night and hear that the vacation house was now deafly silent. Bethany wanted to go back to sleep, but between the days excitement that had left her a little on edge and the familiar thirst that so often accompanied waking up at that time of night, she saw that sleep wasn't going to happen. Stepping out of her room and into the darkness of the hallway, Bethany felt a pang of fear run through her; she had after all only just repulsed an alien invasion with her family a few hours ago. As she tentatively moved through the darkened hallway towards the stairs she remembered how her family had united to defeat the invaders and how her brother had stepped up and outwitted the aliens in the end. Bethany felt a strange warmth and a sense of pride at the thought of her little brother, despite their recent disagreement and the childish bickering, she had always believed that her brother was capable of great things, and saving their planet certainly counted as such.

With each step down the old flight of stairs, they creaked in protest loudly enough that Bethany worried that it might wake the rest of her family, but she made it to the ground floor without incident. From the bottom of the stairs Bethany made it to the kitchen where she had a glass of water to slake her thirst. Now Bethany was faced with the decision of whether to go back to bed or to stay up a little longer and hope that she would feel tired again sometime soon.

Without choosing either plan, Bethany wandered to the front of the house and peered through the houses front windows. Outside she saw someone sitting on the steps of the front porch. Thanks to the darkness and the fact that whoever was out there had their back to her, Bethany couldn't be certain who was out there but she felt had a feeling that it was her bother. Now certain that she didn't want to go back to bed yet, Bethany opened the front door and was hit by the cool night air and a even cooler breeze blowing off of the nearby lake.

Bethany closed the door behind her and moved towards the person on the steps who then turned round to face her. Even in the darkness of night she could make out Tom's face.

"Bethany" he said softly, sounding a little surprised.

"Hey" she said in return as she sat down next to him.

For several minutes both of them sat in silence while they looked out at the world they had managed to save and listened to the crickets and the sound of the wind. Eventually Tom let out a sigh that Bethany knew was a nonverbal acknowledgement of the danger they had been in and survived.

"I guess you couldn't sleep either" asked Tom.

"No, I woke up like five minutes ago and came down for a drink. Then I saw you out here and decided to get some fresh air."

After several nervous seconds Tom said "I'm glad you did" Nervously.

Bethany was surprised by what her brother had said, even though the feud and bad blood between them had ended earlier that night, it had probably been the first nice thing he had said to her since she had started dating Ricky. At a loss as to what to say in response Bethany put a hand on his shoulder and just smiled at him when he turned to look at her.

"You would think we wouldn't be the only ones having trouble sleeping" said Tom.

"Hannah and the twins are too young to really understand how serious today was and Jake…well Jake is Jake."

Tom laughed in response to his sister as replied "Yeah, I guess you're right."

The mention of her little sister and cousins made Bethany think of how they had been fighting aliens while she had spent most of the day trying to find Ricky. It was only after the battle had been nearly lost that she had learned the truth and helped them. Suddenly feeling guilty for not being there for her family, Bethany gave Tom's shoulder a squeeze and said "I'm sorry that I didn't help you guys earlier."

"That's okay" Tom responded almost instantly in an excited voice. "I mean" he started again in a calmer voice "If me and Jake had come to you and said we were fighting aliens would you have believed me?"

Bethany looked at her brother who had a nervous smile growing on his lips and said "No, definitely not" in a joking tone of voice.

Tom turned his head and looked forward again while Bethany took her hand off his shoulder and let it fall between them.

"Bethany, I'm sorry too."

"About what" she asked in confusion.

"The whole thing with Ricky, I never trusted him and I kinda went overboard in trying to get rid of him. "

Tom's apology couldn't help but bring up the less than pleasant memory of her breaking up with Ricky. Bethany had no regrets about it though, Ricky had insulted her family and that was something that she would never tolerate.

"It's okay Tom really, you're hardly the first brother to be overly protective of his sister. Well overprotective isn't the right term because he was a creepy jerk."

"Thanks" he said to her before a strange but comfortable silence fell between them as they looked up at the stars.

At some point Bethany began to feel tired and had to try and stifle a yawn. She knew now would be a good time to go back to bed, but not before she gave into an inexplicable urge to take hold of her brothers hand and give it a short squeeze. Standing up, Bethany said "I'm going back to bed, goodnight Tom. As she walked back towards the front door she heard him say "Goodnight" in return.

For a weeklong vacation that she hadn't been looking forward to other than for the fact that there would be a pool, Bethany had to say that she had enjoyed it. Thanks to the severity of the danger on the first day of her vacation, she had realized what very few people her age understood; that simply being with her family in peace was a blessing. This was especially true with her younger brother who ever since their first day there and their conversation later that night, Bethany had felt connected to in a way she hadn't felt since they were both much younger.

So when the week came to a close and her family piled into their suv she had bitter sweet feelings, Bethany had enjoyed being near her extended family and would miss them, but at the same time the relationship with her brother that she hadn't even realized had become strained till they had fixed it, was now in a much more pleasant place. Now Bethany had no problem sitting next to her brother for the long trip back and Tom who had made it clear he didn't appreciate sitting in the middle seat on the way there had no word of complaint.

Unlike the initial trip to the vacation house, the Pearsons had left later in the day and the sun had set well before they made it home. Since Bethany no longer wished to see Ricky let alone speak to him ever again; she couldn't pass the time by exchanging flirty texts with him. This left her with little more to do than to stare out the window, talk with her siblings or to try and catch some sleep. Due to the fact that she had gone to bed late the previous night and the amount of time she had spent sitting in the van, Bethany felt like taking a nap. The trouble was that sleeping while sitting up was anything but easy, Bethany could just sit back and try to fall asleep that way but she was sure that would never work. A better option would be lean off to one side. To her left was the window which was anything but soft, plus laying her head against It would mean that the vibrations from the suv running over the road would be passed on to her head. To her right sat Tom who Bethany had no problem with using as a pillow. The issue with that was she wasn't sure how her brother would react to being used like furniture. She knew that now that Ricky was gone, Tom was no longer annoyed with her; still resting her head on his shoulder might irritate him.

It never occurred to Bethany that she was staring at Tom the whole time she had been thinking her decision over. Tom noticed this and flashed his sister an anxious smile in response. To Bethany, the benign gesture from her brother was a sign that she could do whatever she wanted. Tom appeared to be a little startled when Bethany grabbed onto his left arm and hugged it against herself, but said nothing to her as she laid her head against his shoulder.

Bethany wondered if what she was doing was weird or inappropriate but found it hard to care. Ever since the start of their family vacation she had found Tom's presence and especially physical contact with him reassuring. Within a couple of minutes Bethany began to nod off with a contented smile on her face.

"Bethany" she heard a male voice whisper to her, as she drifted out of sleep. "Bethany" he whispered again and this time Bethany opened her eyes. With her head still resting on Tom's shoulder, she looked up to him to see Tom looking back at her. "Were almost home, time to wake up."

Bethany released his arm and sat upright, suddenly feeling a little nervous about what she had done to her brother, but that changed when she looked across the bench seat to see that Hannah had followed her big sisters example and had fallen asleep while leaning against her brother. Bethany wondered why Tom hadn't woken Hannah up as well, till the car was parked at home and Tom undid Hannah's seat belt before he cradled her in his arms. While Tom carried his still sleeping little sister into their house, Bethany felt the same sense of warmth and pride she had felt earlier in the week and an involuntary smile grew on her lips.

Once she was inside her room again Bethany dropped her luggage on the floor and collapsed on her bed suddenly feeling very happy to be home where she could sleep in her own bed again. Still feeling drowsy from the ride home, it wasn't very long before Bethany began to drift off into sleep, but before she did she couldn't help but notice how much warmer she had felt sitting next to her brother.

For a while Bethany's summer vacation went better that she had ever hoped for. The bond she shared with Tom only grew stronger as Bethany spent most of her day hanging out not with her girlfriends but her little brother. As the summer wound down and Bethany's freshman year at Michigan approached she noticed a change in her brother's behavior, while earlier in the summer Tom would never turn down her invitation to go somewhere with her, now more often than not he would tell her he was busy with something and then wander off without telling her anything. The way he spoke to her had changed as well. The bitterness and condescension that had made its ugly appearance when she was dating Ricky was back and worse than ever.

At first Bethany tried to ignore Tom's change in behavior and hoped that everything would go back to normal, but within a week of her having to leave it had begun to really hurt. The thought of leaving for college with yet another unresolved problem between them upset Bethany and she desperately wanted to end whatever it was that had come between them again. The trouble was that Bethany didn't know what it was that had made Tom angry with her.

In an attempt to find out what was troubling her brother and to avoid the heartache that would come from leaving for school with Tom still being angry with her, Bethany decided to confront Tom and force him to speak to her about it. The ideal place to do so, Bethany realized would be the basement. The basement that was used to store things the Pearson's no longer needed at the moment was a complete mess that Tom and Bethany's parents did their best to ignore so there was little chance that they would interrupt them, plus Hannah was still at the age where children tended to avoid the darker and creepier parts of their own home.

The pretense Bethany hoped to use to get Tom to follow her down into the basement was to ask him to help her look for a piece of luggage that she needed to use to pack her things away for school. Right from the start the plan took a bad turn since Tom almost seemed to take personal offense to her request, but Bethany persisted and pleaded with her brother enough to make him follow her downstairs. For a short time the siblings spread out amongst the basement and searched for the luggage in silence. Bethany knew that now was her chance to find out what had upset Tom but she was nervous. Asking angry people why there angry tended to blow up in your face, instead Bethany ended up asking the impersonal question of "Did you find it yet?"

"No" he answered harshly.

Bethany was surprised that a simple question got such an angry response and did her best to ignore how much it hurt when he spoke to her like that because she saw it as the opening she needed to get an explanation out of him. Turning towards her brother Bethany said "You're just helping me find a suitcase Tom. Why is this such a big deal?"

Without bothering to look at her, Tom answered "It's not, I'm just…I'm just in a bad mood" and then continued searching for the suitcase.

Seeing that she was on the precipice of getting a real answer out of him, Bethany stopped searching and walked over towards her brother. "Tom. You've been in a bad mood for almost two weeks now. What's going on?"

With a pained look in his eyes, Tom turned to face Bethany and said "Nothing is going on, I'm fine."

This time it was Bethany that became angry, she felt like she was so close to getting an explanation from him but he refused to talk. Acting on her anger, Bethany moved closer towards Tom, bringing herself within inches of him before she spoke to him with obvious anger and sarcasm in her voice. "Really Tom, nothing is going on? My own brother had been acting like a complete jerk to me and I want to know why."

As she looked up slightly towards her Tom, Bethany saw what looked like tears welling up in his eyes. The sight of Tom like that put an end to most of her anger towards him, but Bethany knew that she was close to getting him to tell her the truth and kept the pressure on him. Speaking in a tone of voice that sounded far angrier than she really was, Bethany said "Please just me what the hell is going on with you." Bethany kept her eyes locked onto his and for a short time Tom met her gaze but eventually he looked away, that's when she heard him whisper "I don't want you to leave."

Not quite sure that she heard him, Bethany found herself asking "What?"

With a shaky voice he answered her. "I don't want you to leave for school. I thought when Ricky left I wouldn't have to worry about losing you anymore. I guess I just thought you would stay here with me because…"

By the end Tom just seemed to lose his voice and with a hopeless look on his face he turned round to face the basement stairs but Bethany latched onto his right arm before he could head towards the stairwell. Halted by his sister, Tom turned back round to face her. Looking up at Tom, Bethany felt like something inside her had been set loose, as a wave of emotions ran through her. Ever since the first night of their vacation, Bethany had felt like something had changed. It wasn't just the rebuilding of their sibling bond but had marked the beginning of her wanting something else from her brother even if she hadn't realized what that something was. Now that Tom had more less came out and told her how he felt, Bethany felt like she had been waiting for him to say something the entire summer. Now that he had, Bethany knew that she didn't want to be just his sister anymore.

With his right arm still in her possession, Bethany took hold of Tom's left hand next and placed both of her brother's hands onto her hips. Tom had an uneasy look on his face but did nothing to resist Bethany as she pressed her lips against his. Bethany felt a spark run through her that only grew more intense when Tom returned the kiss a second later. Breaking the kiss Bethany looked Tom in the eyes as she spoke. "Whatever this is Tom, will still be here when I come home next summer I promise." "Besides" she said as she wrapped her arms around Tom and buried her head against his chest "You're smart enough to go to whatever school you want. Why don't you come to Michigan with me?"


End file.
